Online casinos offer bonuses to attract new players to their casinos and to keep existing players at their casino. A good bonus system is a desirable feature at an online casino, but players need to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of accepting bonuses, because usually these are some of both. But first of all they need to be aware of the different kinds of bonuses that exist. All online casino players should know the meaning and differences between the following casino bonus terms:

Welcome bonuses vs. Reload bonuses: Welcome bonuses are the bonuses players can receive when they open an account at an online casino and make their first deposit. Welcome bonuses (also known as sign-up bonuses) are given as an incentive to new players so that they can try out the casino and their games. Welcome bonuses often take the form of a match bonus (100% bonus) where the casino matches the player's deposit up to a certain amount. If the player deposits $100, the casino matches with $100 on your account, so that you have $200 on your account to play with.

The main advantage of accepting a welcome bonus is that you can play at the casino without solely risking their own money. The online casino takes part of the risk as well. The disadvantage of welcome bonuses is that you have to fulfill a high amount of wagering before you can cash out the bonus money. Online casinos have to guard themselves against bonus hunting and as a result players have to play with their welcome bonus money a lot before a cash-out can be made. On top of that, many popular games are restricted in order to reach the wagering requirements which of course means that players cannot try out these games with the bonus money.

Reload Bonuses are given to active players who have made at least one deposit at an online casino, often as part of a Player Rewards or VIP programme. Reload bonuses (or loyalty or subsequent bonuses as they are also called) are offered to players who have received a certain status due to a high amount of wagering as an incentive to continue playing at the casino.

The main advantage of reload bonuses are that they are larger and that they have lower wagering requirements than welcome bonuses. As a rule of thumb you can assume that the higher status you have at a casino, the more attractive the bonuses you are likely to be offered. The large disadvantage regarding reload bonuses are that you will have to wager a lot and be a regular player at one (or a few casinos) in order to receive these bonuses. If you want to be eligible for VIP treatment at online casinos, you cannot jump around between casino in order to test out new games, new software and casinos as much as you might like.

Cashable bonuses vs. Sticky bonuses: Cashable bonuses (or real money bonuses) quite simple refers to bonuses from an online casino that can be cashed out once the wagering requirements have been met. The majority of online casino bonuses can be cashed out, but not all.

The advantage of cashable bonuses are that you play with real money which you eventually can withdraw along with any winnings generated by the bonus. The main disadvantage is that cashable bonuses have sizeable wagering requirements attached to them to avoid abuse and to make sure that players do not cash out bonus money before any real risk has been taken by the player. Additionally, low risk-games such as Roulette and BlackJack will often not count towards reaching the wagering requirements. These will have to be met on games with higher risk such as Slots and VideoPoker games.

Sticky Bonuses (or play bonuses) are bonuses that can be used to play and win with, but they can never be cashed out. The bonus amount will be removed from the player's account so that only a profit generated by the bonus amount can be withdrawn. It is not unusual that sticky bonuses are 200 or 300% offers, but they only ”stick” to the player until they are either lost or if you request a withdrawal.

The main advantage of sticky bonuses is that you get to try out a casino's games with more money than without the bonus, thereby increasing the amount of action and excitement. If you like to play slots or other games with very high prizes, it can make a lot of sense to play with sticky bonuses. The larger money sum on your casino account allows you more play with maximum coins in the hunt for that big win. Losing a $200 bonus upon withdrawal does not matter much if you just won say $10.000. There really is only one disadvantage worth mentioning, but unfortunately it is a big one. Sticky bonus money is never yours and never will be yours. It is money to play with, not real money that can be withdrawn. Many players stay away from sticky bonuses for this reason. I am one of them.

No Deposit Bonuses: The large majority of casino bonuses require that a player makes a deposit to an online casino account before he/she is eligible to receive a bonus. But some casinos offer risk free gambling in the form of no deposit bonuses. No deposit bonuses usually takes one of two forms. The first type of no deposit bonus is a small and simple bonus, often around $10-15, where you can try out some pre-selected casino games and keep the profit after fulfilling some wagering requirements. The second type of no deposit bonus has a pre-determined time frame (often an hour) and a imaginary bonus amount. If the player manages to make a profit by playing the casino's games, this will be moved to a real player account and can be withdrawn once wagering requirements have been met.

No deposit bonuses are attractive to some players because it is the only way you can try out a casino's games without risking any your own money. Who can say no to free money? There are a few disadvantages though. Casinos are private enterprises who do not just give away money to players. First of all, no deposit bonuses have high wagering requirements attached. Secondly, most casinos set some sort of limit on how much money players can win on a no deposit bonus. Last but not least, it is common practice that you have to deposit money to your casino account before you can cash-out a no deposit bonus from it.

Preferred Deposit Bonuses: Preferred deposit bonuses is a term used to describe a percentage bonus of around 5-15% given by some casinos if players use the casino's favorite type on money transfer when funding their casino account. Some casinos have preferences with regards to how they would like to receive money from their players. As an incentive to use this partical type of money transfer they reward players who follow their wishes. Prefered deposit bonuses are usually given on the most used e-wallets such as Neteller, Moneybookers and Click2Pay.

From a player's perspective the advantage of this sort of bonus is straght forward: You have more money to play with on your casino account. The disadvantage is that you have to use a specific type of money transfer to get the bonus. Few players have accounts with all the major e-wallets and the best bonus at a certain casino might just be with the e-wallet you did not choose to open an account with. It could also be that you are a citizen of a country where it is not possible to open accounts with the major e-wallets. Many e-wallets does not accept American custumers after the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to mention an example.

As we have seen there are advantages and disadvantages with all forms of online casino bonuses. You need to weigh these positive and negative aspects up against each other before you accept a bonus. If you have clear preferences regarding which games you want to play, you need to make sure that these can be met under the terms of the bonus. It is worth it to make some basic calculations regarding the wagering requirements that can ruin what otherwise looks like a great bonus as well. If cannot accept the terms and conditions regarding a casino bonus, you should not accept that bonus. It is perfectly possible to play without bonuses. Many players do. If you play without bonuses you have clear advantages as well. You will not have extra bonus money to play with, but there will be no restrictions on which games you can play and no bonus related wagering requirements you will have to fulfill. The choice is yours...